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What scares you? (movies, books, stories, etc.)

I heard a podcast on this subject today, and was really disappointed in what was offered. For me there's so much; this is the stuff I read and write. A few things:

*When I was small I read a book about "true life" weird stuff. This book included a story about a boy who went out to the well to get water late at night and was drawn up into the sky and never heard from again. I was terrified to go outside after dark for years after, and when sent out at night, I kept one eye on the sky and one on the door. I still do.

*Acid-washed horror movies from the late sixties and early seventies. My favorite was Dan Curtis' "Burnt Offerings" with Karen Black, Oliver Reed, Bette Davis, and Burgess Meredith. Two images stick with me: The creepy chauffeur of Oliver Reed's nightmares and the final shot of Karen Black.

*Several Stephen King stories, including the short story about the man whose hands become infested with eyes. Salem's Lot, too.

*M.R. James' 'O Whistle and I'll come to you, my lad." E.F. Benson's "The Room in the Tower." The latter may be the scariest short story I've ever read. Many other short horror offerings from the turn of the 19th/20th century.

Re: What scares you? (movies, books, stories, etc.)

A couple of other short stories: "They Bite" by Anthony Boucher about what you see out of the corners of your eyes and a story I can't remember the title of by John Dickson Carr about "the thing that clutches and catches".

Re: What scares you? (movies, books, stories, etc.)

Stephen King was the first author who made me scared reading a book in the middle of the day.

Same here. I still to this day cannot read Salems Lot without having nightmares. Or go near a window at night. lol!

I love horror books, but what really scares me are authors like Dean Koontz, who can weave real life issues into his stories along with supernatural stuff. Like the Bioethics in One Door Away From Heaven and the government manipulation in Dark Rivers of The Heart. Or a doctor with a God Complex and drugs being able to destroy a life like in False Memory...

Re: What scares you? (movies, books, stories, etc.)

One that I intended to put in my next post was then non-supernatural Koontz book "Intensity". Probably the most disturbing book I've ever read.

A couple 180 degrees away: Whitley Streiber's "Communion" which is supposed to be non-fiction, but is really, imho, a collection of delusions caused by hypnosis. This one scared me because one incident mirrors something that happened to me when I was small in exact detail, including the words that were said, and a film in the same vein, again based on a supposedly true story (and I think the whole alien abduction stuff is bunk) "Fire in the Sky". I don't know why I find this stuff, which is complete nonsense, so creepy.

Re: What scares you? (movies, books, stories, etc.)

Originally Posted by marcshoe

One that I intended to put in my next post was then non-supernatural Koontz book "Intensity". Probably the most disturbing book I've ever read.

A couple 180 degrees away: Whitley Streiber's "Communion" which is supposed to be non-fiction, but is really, imho, a collection of delusions caused by hypnosis. This one scared me because one incident mirrors something that happened to me when I was small in exact detail, including the words that were said, and a film in the same vein, again based on a supposedly true story (and I think the whole alien abduction stuff is bunk) "Fire in the Sky". I don't know why I find this stuff, which is complete nonsense, so creepy.

Maybe how it was portrayed in the movie OR the possibility that maybe, just maybe, SOMETHING really did happen but we'll never know what.

"Now that's a real shame when folks be throwin' away a perfectly good white boy like that."

Re: What scares you? (movies, books, stories, etc.)

Originally Posted by RichRed

I'll back you up on that one. Just thinking about the bad guy (that term is so far from doing the character justice) in "Intensity" gives me the willies.

I'm not a big fan of Koontz, but that book is creepy as HELL. I'll echo Stephen King; I read It a little too young, and the book sitting on my shelf takes me back to my childhood bedroom reading it with a flashlight and scaring the bejeezus out of myself.

Jaws really got me as a kid, too. I'm still afraid of sharks today. I've never jumped like the moment when that head popped out of the sunk boat.

Recently, it seems scary movies are all about blood and jump scenes, but a couple that really stayed with me recently were Insidious and, you'll laugh, but I thought the original was horrifying, Paranormal Activity.

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